William Kent: A George II Giltwood Table

An exceptional George II carved giltwood table in the manner of William Kent. The table with gadrooned edge above a central mask flanked by acanthus scrolls, on shell carved cabriole legs and ball and claw feet, with an inset Portoro Nero marble top.

William Kent & William Jones
The table reflects the influence of William Kent and his circle with its inclusion of the central mask and draped floral garlands. A drawing in the Victoria & Albert Museum by Kent shows his design for a side-table at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, which was published in John Vardy, Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent (1744, pl. 41). This design features the prominent central carved mask and dramatic floral swags.

The present table also shares a particularly close affinity to the designs in William Jones’s publication, The Gentleman or Builder’s Companion (1739) for ‘Frames to Tables’ (pl. 28, 30). These designs include the distinctive use of the carved mask on the central frieze combined with draped garlands and acanthus scrolls.

It is notable that the present table features shell carved cabriole legs and ball and claw foot, whereas most of the designs show the scrolled canted legs and feet. These design features align this piece with the slightly later designers of the George II era, including Matthias Lock, who incorporated dramatically carved ball and claw feet on a number of designs.

At Temple Newsam, a pair of Japanese export lacquer cabinets on giltwood stands survive, and the stands bear strong resemblance to the present table. The cabinets were installed at Temple Newsam by the Honorable Charles Ingram and his bride Frances Shepherd after their 1758 marriage. Frances’s father, Samuel Shepherd, left his daughter £40,000 and, based on the documentation, the pair of cabinets. The 1808 Temple Newsam inventory records the cabinets as being in the Breakfast Parlour. Although there is no record of the stands original invoice, there is a charge of £9 on November 7 1758 to Richard Kerby, cabinetmaker, Sackville Street, London for ‘New Gilding 2 Rich Carv’d frames for cabinets in the Best Burnish’d Gold.’

The stands of these cabinets similarly date to the 1730s. However, the construction of the Temple Newsam pair is notably different than the present example, which has a much sturdier frame to allow for the weight of a substantial marble top.